60 THE FORESTER. March, 



rocky that the timber is sparse and valu- Timber Statistics. 



less, and therefore required little exam- h ig atif in to find that the t 



ination so that most of the work was daii are beginni to some 



confined to the lower country which was, attention t0 the ]ack of reliable timber 



proportionally more closely traversed. statistics of the United States In a 



"Dr. Schenck s plan of gridironing the recent jssue of the Transcript of Bost 



country by routes of travel fifty miles there fa an intervieWj sup pi eme nted by 



apart is open to many objections. It editorial discussionj with M r. Weston, 



would involve an enormous amount of of Weston & B igelow, who insists that 



unnecessary labor. We know perfectly whereas now there are no reliable data 



well what regions are timbered and what as tQ the dmber { Qf the cQ ^ 



not. Why traverse the vast extent of shouM be nQ difficult matter tQ ^ 



the plains and deserts where every one for a faM accurate ce and u 



knows perfectly well there are no trees? that Co ess should appropriate ?he 



What sort of an idea of the extent and m to cover the cos t of the work, 



stand of timber in the country could be Thig Ja a subject whJch [s of interest nQt 



obtained by traversing it along arbitrary merel tQ the lumber trad but q{ im _ 



lines fifty miles apart? We have alreadv nr *.~^ *. +u r ^ \ u 



. / . ^ . ... , -. portance to the Government as a basis 



more information than could be afforded for formulati some intelligent policy 



by such a skeleton. As to defining the in fore ma f ters> 

 areas by such journeys, consider the ..... 



condition of things in the Eastern States, ^ At a recent meetm g of the American 



which are naturally timbered and where Ec nonilc Association, a report was 



to-day the timbered and cleared areas made b ^ a committee which included, 



form 'little, irregular patches, a fraction amon .g others ' Hon - Carro11 D - Wright, 



of a square mile in extent, scattered over who 1S P robabl y the best qualified statis- 



the face of the country. These can be tlcian in the Unlted States. This report 



delineated only by careful, detailed sur- called attentlon to the fact that the 



veys, such as the Geological Survey is Twelfth Census, which is about to be 



now making. provided for by act of Congress, may 



"There remains the question of the P rove inade q uate to the needs of a 



unit to be employed in stating the natlon such as thls - 



amount of timber. On some accounts, The committee makes criticism not so 

 it might be well to use the cubic foot niuch of the accuracy of the previous 

 and give the entire contents of the tree, censuses as of the treatment of the data 

 but to this there are two objections. which weresecured, and of a lack of con- 

 One is that when we had completed our tinuity from census to census. The 

 survey, we would know little about the committee believes that there should be 

 merchantable contents of our forests. a permanent census bureau, or that there 

 The other, that we would be obliged to should be constituted special bureaus, 

 throw away all the cruisings which have possibly in connection with some of 

 been made and which can be collected tne departments of government, to com- 

 at such trifling expense, and to do the P^ e information upon specific subjects. 

 work over again. This work should, of course, be in the 



"That it is desirable to obtain this hands of specialists in these subjects, 

 information regarding our forests, goes This is in line with what the lumber- 

 without saying. It lies, or should lie, men of the United States recently have 

 at the bottom of all forestry movements. been urging. It has developed during 

 Such data are fundamental, and to all the agitation concerning the tariff 

 attempt to build up a forest system with- that the official records of the United 

 out them, as we are trying to do, is much States are wofully inaccurate and defi- 

 like building a house without a founda- ci'ent concerning the greatest manufac- 

 tlon - ' turing industry of the country lumber. 



